men. One had a truncheon raised to smite him down to the ground, and it was only in consequence of two friends coming forward and shouting out who he was that he was saved from a brutal and violent attack. The function of the police was to arrest criminals and keep down crime, not to bludgeon people and fire into crowds indiscriminately. He had no desire to prolong this debate, but he had risen to add his protest to that of hon. Gentlemen below the Gangway against the tone and spirit of the Chief Secretary's reply. To do the hon. Member for West Belfast | confronted by a body of gigantic policejustice, he had drawn his account from the papers, and not from any secret information that could not he tested; but the House knew that the information of the right hon. Gentleman was tainted in its very source. [Cries of "No!"] Was there a single Member of the House who doubted that the information given by the right hon. Gentleman had emanated from incriminated parties? Where else could the right hon. Gentleman get his information from? It must be from the official source, and the official source was tainted. What they ought to expect, and what they must claim if they were not to lose their national rights, was that a Minister should speak not on the authority of a party or a section, but he should speak to the country on a matter of this kind with great reserve, and lose no opportunity of testing in other ways the information supplied him. When he rose in his place he should not represent the views of prejudiced and interested parties; he should submit his information to those tests which it was in the power of the Government to apply, and which it was the duty of the Government to apply. He did not like to criticize the language of the right hon. Gentleman, which was always scholarly and nearly always correct, but he did not understand one passionate remark in which the right hon. Gentleman asked -Were the police doing less than their duty when they rushed to the barracks, took their rifles, and fired? It must have been a slip of the tongue; he must have meant more than their duty. No one would suspect them of having done less than their duty. The right hon. Gentleman failed altogether to do what he ought to have done, and what he must do if this country was to remain quiet. The people of England would not submit to have their fellow subjects batoned and massacred, and he thought it was only due to the Government to let them know that in matters of this kind they would not only have to encounter the opposition of 86 Irish Members, but also of a great political Party in this country. Let the House imagine the case which he had himself experienced. He was passing from his hotel at Cardiff to the club, not 100 yards away, and in total ignorance of any disturbance, when he found himself MR. JOHN O'CONNOR (Tipperary, S.) said, the Chief Secretary had alluded to the attitude of humility with which it would be necessary for the police to approach the promoters of meetings in Ireland. Why was it that in the past the meetings in Ireland had passed over in peace and quietness? It was because this attitude of humility was used by the police-it was because the promoters of the meeting were ap proached by the police in a respectful manner, and because the promoters of these meetings gave that protection to the police reporters which was needed, and which enabled the meetings to pass off quietly. He would point out to the House that there was attached to this permission and protection of the reporter one condition, and that was, that there should be no police at any of the meetings, but that condition which was laid down by Mr. Forster in the House had been outraged and violated by the Police Authorities, who, after this permission had been granted to the reporters, still invaded the meetings by the directions of the Government whose Representatives sat on the Bench opposite. A change had occurred in the policy of the right hon. Gentleman, but he would ask the Chief Secretary whether he was satisfied with the result of the change of policy? When these meetings passed over peacefully, the Irish members took the protection of the reporters into their own hands, with the result that the people exercised their undoubted right of free speech and public meeting without endangering the public peace of the country. The Chief Secretary had alluded to the fact that one of their Colleagues told the people to close their ranks, but in his garbled report the right hon. Gentleman failed to say that it was on the second occasion this | Resident Magistrate. He attributed to expression was used. It was properly the peaceful result of the Ennis meeting used, and if he had been there he would the fact that there were two English have used it himself and asked the gentlemen present, one in command of people to close their ranks against the Her Majesty's forces, and the other on police reporter, who was naturally looked the side of the people. When the Goupon as a spy and informer. The Chief vernment left the maintenance of peace Secretary also said the police fired in and order in the hands of drunken Inself-defence. Then whom did they spectors and prejudiced Resident Magisshoot? Did they shoot the men who trates they created all these difficulties attacked them? No, because they had and troubles which surrounded and retired to the meeting, but they shot an which would eventually overthrow them. old man who was round the corner and He had said before that his constituents formed no part or parcel of the meeting, were concerned in this matter. They and a youth who was passing by and were the men of magnificent Tipperary, who also formed no part of the meeting. who struck a blow yesterday for the These were the men who were injured liberties of the people. He was not the and killed by that system of organized first to use the expression "magnificent ruffianism, the Irish police. The Chief Tipperary." That expression was first Secretary said there was no provocation used by an English General who once given by the police. Had the right hon. contended in a famous field in India, Gentleman read the fair reports in the when two regiments of Tipperary men London papers which described how the marched through 30,000 Sepoys, and police batoned the horses that sur- saved his honour and the character of rounded the meeting, and caused the the English Army. He was proud of first commotion, and how they assaulted the conduct of his constituents. They the people without the Riot Act being struck a blow for the right of public read? Had the right hon. Gentlemen meeting and the Constitutional liberties even read the impartial reports in those of the people, and he called upon the London papers which were the indica- people of England to defend them in tors of the policy of the right hon. their brave action. He knew he should Gentleman himself. The right hon. not be disappointed in relying on the Gentleman and his officials in Ireland English people. He had been up and were doing their best to provoke the down this country lately, and he did not people, and upon him the responsibility misjudge the spirit of the people when must rest. He knew what it was to see he said they were jealous of their Condrunken Inspectors come out of their stitution and of the privileges that were hotels and take charge of this organized being frittered away by the Government system of ruffianism, and he knew what now in Office. He appealed to the people it was to see drunken police magistrates of England to stand by the men who in Ireland, with the lives of the people were assaulted yesterday, and to show in their hands. He had seen at Mallow their self-sacrifice and friendship in station people brutally batoned by police defending the liberties of British citi in charge of a drunken Sub-Inspec- zenship. tor, whilst another Resident Magistrate, Mr. Butler, protested against the action of this man; and had it not been for the humane and intelligent exercise of authority on that occasion by Mr. Butler, the man to whom he alluded would, in his drunken attitude, and in command of this organized ruffianism, have shed the blood of the people. Contrast the suppression of the Ennis meeting last Sunday with the action of the authorities at Mitchelstown-contrast the action of the English gentleman and soldier, Colonel Turner, with the action of the friends of the Irish landlords, the Irish Sub-Inspector, and the Mr. John O'Connor (Tipperary) MAJOR BANES (West Ham, S.) said, that it was unworthy of the House, which prided itself upon being a deliberative Assembly, to continue this discussion, for it must be admitted that at present the House had not sufficient information as to the facts to pass judg ment on what had occurred. Hon. Members opposite might take a certain view of the matter, but they all knew the excitability of their nature. Objection had been taken to the Chief Secretary's statement; but the right hon. Gentleman had been forced to make a statement, and had given the House the best he could. He had admitted that the statement was not as full as he could | The people of this country and of Scotwish, and they must wait, as sensible land would not stand by and see their men should wait, for further informa- Irish fellow subjects dragooned, shot tion. The Members on the Ministerial down, and massacred, as they were side of the House deplored this lament- yesterday. This was not an illegal able affair; but they must pause before meeting. He would not admit that a they passed a decisive judgment upon Proclamation could make a meeting it. It was said by hon. Members oppo- illegal, but there was not even a Prosite that no fault could be found with clamation. There was no reading of the the meeting, that it was quiet and Riot Act. It was nonsense to ask them peaceable, and that the odium of the to believe that there was any question disturbance rested on a small body of of self-defence when the police fired. police. To any common sense man that How could the police have fired only in did not seem convincing, especially as self-defence when all the evidence proved these so-called peaceable men came to they went into their barracks and fired the meeting armed with blackthorns, from the top stories? The magistrate and carried with them missiles and it appeared was enjoying himself in an weapons. The country would judge- hotel, instead of taking command and [Home Rule cheers]-as it would judge doing the duty for which he was paid. of the attitude of hon. Members oppo. The right hon. Gentleman asked the site that day. [Ministerial cheers and House to believe that all the indepeninterruption.] He could well understand dent accounts of the newspapers from the hon. Members opposite did not want one and to the other were inaccurate, the true facts of the case to be known. and that the official reports furnished to [Renewed interruption.] Hold hard. He him by persons incriminated were the begged pardon of hon. Members; but only true versions of the case. The hon. he contended that the people of Great Member for East Mayo (Mr. Dillon), it Britain would not form their judgment appeared, was speaking when 30 policeentirely on the allegations of hon. men made their way through and atGentlemen opposite. At the present tacked the people with their batons. moment, however, the House had not Was there, he asked, any danger of sufficient information to profitably dis- such things as this last summer? No; cuss the matter. The English consti- because of the peaceful policy which was tuencies were sympathetic in this mat- organized by the right hon. Member for ter; but before they gave their decision Mid Lothian. He supposed the Gothey would insist on hearing both sides vernment would shield the offenders in of the question. this case in the same way that they had already declined to prosecute a policeman for murder. The newspaper accounts affirmed that the police produced commotion by using their batons upon horses, and that statement was not denied. No answer was given to the question why the Riot Act was not read before the police fired. It was no justification of violence to say that Members of the House had described police reporters as "spies." The responsibility for this affair rested upon the Government, who had disturbed the comparative peace of Ireland, and on Lord Salisbury, who had described the Irish people as "Hottentots." The people of this country would not allow the Government to continue this course of tyranny and massacre by the Bashi-Bazouks of the Constabulary. The Government were living in a fools' paradise, and they had better wake up out of it. The people of this country would not stand by and see MR. CONYBEARE (Cornwall, Camborne) remarked that hon. Members behind him had had far more experience of public meetings than the hon. and gallant Gentleman opposite-he did not even know his name. MR. SPEAKER: Order, order! MR. CONYBEARE: I will withdraw that remark. MR. SPEAKER: Order, order! I did not ask the hon. Member to withdraw anything; I only ask him to be courteous to other Members of the House. MR. CONYBEARE, resuming, said, they had so far the facts before them that they had reports in every newspaper in the country, which were much more impartial than the statement which the Chief Secretary had been able to lay before the House. The hon. Member for Tipperary had appealed to the English and Scotch people for support. That appeal would be answered. he right of public meeting put down in | justify the action of the police in shootIreland. He challenged any Ministerial ing from their barracks. Had it come Member to address a public meeting of to this, that no abuse could be resisted his constituents-not a packed meeting in any assembly while the Government -and to justify the conduct of the vindicated the conduct of policemen in police and of the Government in this their barracks, unattacked, firing upon matter. Let any hon. Member opposite the mob? address a mass meeting, say in the streets of Bradford, and he would soon find what would be the effect of the discontinuance of the right of public meeting. He warned the Government that unless they took steps at once to keep in order their Bashi-Bazouks in Ireland it would be worse for them. MR. HALLEY STEWART (Lincolnshire, Spalding) felt it his duty to enter his solemn protest against the speeches from the Ministerial side of the House. The hon. and gallant Member for West Ham (Major Banes) asked them as a deliberative Assembly to keep their judgment in suspense; but how could they do that in the teeth of the impassioned statement which was made by the Chief Secretary? It was full of bitter feeling towards hon. Members below the Gangway, heaping upon them contumely and contempt and holding them up to all Europe as being guilty in this matter because they came to this House to vindicate the first right of their constituents. It would not be right for Members of the Opposition to abstain from protesting against the way in which the Chief Magistrate for Ireland, as the right hon. Gentleman might be called, spoke and acted with regard to the administration of the law in the country whose interests were committed to his hands. The right hon. Gentleman had absolved the police for breaking into the crowd in the first instance with the reporter. What right had the police to break into the crowd? He had charged the hon. Member who called out Close up against the police," as being guilty of the whole transaction by making that statement at the very beginning; but had not any man in such a situation the right to turn round upon his supporters and the public and say, "Close up?" He maintained that it was an abuse of the law of this country to break in upon a peaceable assembly, and then to charge upon the man who, addressing the assembly, called out "Close up," the responsibility of this dire transaction. Worst of all was the Chief Secretary's attempt to MR. A. J. BALFOUR: I have no objection to hon. Members giving their own version of what occurred; but if the hon. Member is representing my speech, I give his representation of it a most emphatic contradiction. I said the police fired from the barracks in selfdefence. MR. HALLEY STEWART said, the right hon. Gentleman had not stated that there was any crowd there, and if there was not, what need was there to fire in self-defence? He could not conceive, if the tenfold statements which had come to this City were correct, that there was anything to warrant the statement of the right hon. Gentleman. He implored the independent supporters of the Government not to sanction these transactions. Depend upon it, we were beginning a career which would mark a serious epoch in our national history. If these things could be done when this House was sitting, what would be done when Members were dispersed ? In vindication of the right of public meeting a higher tribunal would be appealed to, and he would say to hon. Gentlemen below the Gangway, in the name of hundreds of absent Members and of millions of their fellow countrymen, that there would not be wanting men to stand by their side in this great trial, and though English and Scotch Members would know that they were supporting their own right of public meeting in their own country, it would not be from any selfish motive alone that they would champion the Irish cause; but in that spirit of brotherhood and love of justice which prompted them on that and all such occasions to fly to the help of the weak and the oppressed. THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. GIBSON) (Liverpool, Walton): I desire to say but few words at the close of this debate in respect to some of the arguments which have fallen from hon. Gentlemen opposite, because, as everyone knows, the whole of this important matter will be discussed very fully on Monday next. With the materials before us we cannot discuss the ques tion now with the fulness with which | [Cries of "No!"] According to hon. Gentlemen opposite the police can be |